Neville Goddard Workbooks

OUT OF THIS WORLD

Neville Goddard

G. & J. PUBLISHING CO.
Los Angeles, California. 1949

CONTENTS

Chapter 1 - THINKING FOURTH-DIMENSION ALLY 3

Chapter 2 - ASSUMPTIONS BECOME FACTS 14

Chapter 3 - POWER OF IMAGINATION 2 1

Chapter 4 - NO ONE TO CHANGE BUT SELF 27

Copyright 1949 by Neville Goddard

This eBook edition Copyright © 2007
w w w . S elf-Impro vement-eB ooks . com

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Chapter 1

THINKING FOURTH-DIMENSIONALLY

"And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is
come to pass, ye might believe, " — John 14:29

MANY persons, myself included, have observed events before
they occurred; that is, before they occurred in this world of three
dimensions. Since man can observe an event before it occurs in
the three dimensions of space, life on earth must proceed
according to plan, and this plan must exist elsewhere in another
dimension and be slowly moving through our space.

If the occurring events were not in this world when they were
observed, then, to be perfectly logical, they must have been out
of this world. And whatever is there to be seen before it occurs
here must be "Predetermined" from the point of view of man
awake in a three-dimensional world.

Thus the question arises: "Are we able to alter our future?"

My object in writing these pages is to indicate possibilities
inherent in man, to show that man can alter his future; but, thus
altered, it forms again a deterministic sequence starting from the
point of interference — a future that will be consistent with the
alteration. The most remarkable feature of man's future is its
flexibility. It is determined by his attitudes rather than by his
acts. The cornerstone on which all things are based is man's
concept of himself. He acts as he does and has the experiences

that he does, because his concept of himself is what it is, and for
no other reason. Had he a different concept of self, he would act
differently. A change of concept of self automatically alters his
future: and a change in any term of his future series of exper-
iences reciprocally alters his concept of self. Man's assumptions
which he regards as insignificant produce effects that are
considerable; therefore man should revise his estimate of an
assumption, and recognize its creative power.

All changes take place in consciousness. The future, although
prepared in every detail in advance, has several outcomes. At
every moment of our lives we have before us the choice of
which of several futures we will choose.

There are two actual outlooks on the world possessed by every-
one — a natural focus and a spiritual focus. The ancient teachers
called the one "the carnal mind," the other "the mind of Christ."
We may differentiate them as ordinary waking consciousness —
governed by our senses, and a controlled imagination — governed
by desire. We recognize these two distinct centers of thought in
the statement: "The natural man receiveth not the things of the
spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he
know them for they are spiritually discerned." The natural view
confines reality to the moment called now. To the natural view,
the past and future are purely imaginary. The spiritual view, on
the other hand, sees the contents of time. It sees events as
distinct and separated as objects in space. The past and future
are a present whole to the spiritual view. What is mental and
subjective to the natural man is concrete and objective to the
spiritual man.

The habit of seeing only that which our senses permit, renders us
totally blind to what we otherwise could see. To cultivate the
faculty of seeing the invisible, we should often deliberately
disentangle our minds from the evidence of the senses and focus
our attention on an invisible state, mentally feeling it and
sensing it until it has all the distinctness of reality.

Earnest, concentrated thought focused in a particular direction
shuts out other sensations and causes them to disappear. We
have but to concentrate on the state desired in order to see it.
The habit of withdrawing attention from the region of sensation
and concentrating it on the invisible develops our spiritual
outlook and enables us to penetrate beyond the world of sense
and to see that which is invisible. "For the invisible things of
him from the creation of the world are clearly seen." — Romans
1:20. This vision is completely independent of the natural
faculties. Open it and quicken it! Without it, these instructions
are useless, for "the things of the spirit are spiritually discerned."

A little practice will convince us that we can, by controlling our
imagination, reshape our future in harmony with our desire.
Desire is the mainspring of action. We could not move a single
finger unless we had a desire to move it. No matter what we do,
we follow the desire which at the moment dominates our minds.
When we break a habit, our desire to break it is greater than our
desire to continue in the habit.

The desires which impel us to action are those that hold our
attention. A desire is but an awareness of something we lack or
need to make our life more enjoyable. Desires always have some

personal gain in view, the greater the anticipated gain, the more
intense, is the desire. There is no absolutely unselfish desire.
Where there is nothing to gain there is no desire, and conse-
quently no action.

The spiritual man speaks to the natural man through the
language of desire. The key to progress in life and to the
fulfillment of dreams lies in ready obedience to its voice.
Unhesitating obedience to its voice is an immediate assumption
of the wish fulfilled. To desire a state is to have it. As Pascal has
said, "You would not have sought me had you not already found
me." Man, by assuming the feeling of his wish fulfilled, and
then living and acting on this conviction, alters the future in
harmony with his assumption.

Assumptions awaken what they affirm. As soon as man assumes
the feeling of his wish fulfilled, his four-dimensional self finds
ways for the attainment of this end, discovers methods for its
realization. I know of no clearer definition of the means by
which we realize our desires than to experience in imagination
what we would experience in the flesh were we to achieve our
goal. This experience of the end wills the means. With its larger
outlook the four-dimensional self then constructs the means
necessary to realize the accepted end.

The undisciplined mind finds it difficult to assume a state which
is denied by the senses. Here is a technique that makes it easy to
encounter events before they occur, to "call things which are not
seen as though they were." People have a habit of slighting the
importance of simple things; but this simple formula for

changing the future was discovered after years of searching and
experimenting. The first step in changing the future is desire —
that is: define your objective — know definitely what you want.
Secondly: construct an event which you believe you would
encounter following the fulfillment of your desire — an event
which implies fulfillment of your desire — something that will
have the action of self predominant. Thirdly: immobilize the
physical body and induce a condition akin to sleep — lie on a bed
or relax in a chair and imagine that you are sleepy; then, with
eyelids closed and your attention focused on the action you
intend to experience — in imagination — mentally feel yourself
right into the proposed action — imagining all the while that you
are actually performing the action here and now. You must
always participate in the imaginary action, not merely stand
back and look on, but you must feel that you are actually
performing the action so that the imaginary sensation is real to
you.

It is important always to remember that the proposed action
must be one which follows the fulfillment of your desire; and,
also, you must feel yourself into the action until it has all the
vividness and distinctness of reality. For example: suppose you
desired promotion in office. Being congratulated would be an
event you would encounter following the fulfillment of your
desire. Having selected this action as the one you will
experience in imagination, immobilize the physical body, and
induce a state akin to sleep — a drowsy state — but one in which
you are still able to control the direction of your thoughts — a
state in which you are attentive without effort. Now, imagine
that a friend is standing before you. Put your imaginary hand

into his. First feel it to be solid and real, then carry on an
imaginary conversation with him in harmony with the action. Do
not visualize yourself at a distance in point of space and at a
distance in point of time being congratulated on your good
fortune. Instead, make elsewhere here, and the future now. The
future event is a reality now in a dimensionally larger world;
and, oddly enough, now in a dimensionally larger world, is
equivalent to here in the ordinary three-dimensional space of
everyday life. The difference between feeling yourself in action,
here and now, and visualizing yourself in action, as though you
were on a motion-picture screen, is the difference between
success and failure. The difference will be appreciated if you
will now visualize yourself climbing a ladder. Then with eyelids
closed imagine that a ladder is right in front of you and feel you
are actually climbing it.

Desire, physical immobility bordering on sleep, and imaginary
action in which self feelingly predominates, here and now, are
not only important factors in altering the future, but they are
essential conditions in consciously projecting the spiritual self.
If, when the physical body is immobilized we become possessed
of the idea to do some thing — and imagine that we are doing it
here and now and keep the imaginary action feelingly going
right up until sleep ensues — we are likely to awaken out of the
physical body to find ourselves in a dimensionally larger world
with a dimensionally larger focus and actually doing what we
desired and imagined we were doing in the flesh. But whether
we awaken there or not, we are actually performing the action in
the fourth-dimensional world, and we will re-enact it in the
future, here in the third-dimensional world.

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Experience has taught me to restrict the imaginary action, to
condense the idea which is to be the object of our meditation
into a single act, and to re-enact it over and over again until it
has the feeling of reality. Otherwise, the attention will wander
off along an associational track, and hosts of associated images
will be presented to our attention. In a few seconds they will
lead us hundreds of miles away from our objective in point of
space, and years away in point of time. If we decide to climb a
particular flight of stairs, because that is the likely event to
follow the realization of our desire, then we must restrict the
action to climbing that particular flight of stairs. Should our
attention wander off, we must bring it back to its task of
climbing that flight of stairs and keep on doing so until the
imaginary action has all the solidity and distinctness of reality.
The idea must be maintained in the field of presentation without
any sensible effort on our part. We must, with the minimum of
effort, permeate the mind with the feeling of the wish fulfilled.

Drowsiness facilitates change because it favors attention without
effort, but it must not be pushed to the stage of sleep, in which
we shall no longer be able to control the movements of our
attention, but rather a moderate degree of drowsiness in which
we are still able to direct our thoughts. A most effective way to
embody a desire is to assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled
and then, in a relaxed and sleepy state, repeat over and over
again, like a lullaby, any short phrase which implies fulfillment
of our desire, such as "Thank you" as though we addressed a
higher power for having done it for us. If, however, we seek a
conscious projection into a dimensionally larger world, then we
must keep the action going right up until sleep ensues.

Experience in imagination, with all the distinctness of reality,
what would be experienced in the flesh were you to achieve
your goal; and you shall, in time, meet it in the flesh as you met
it in your imagination. Feed the mind with premises — that is,
assertions presumed to be true, because assumptions, though
unreal to the senses, if persisted in, until they have th q feeling of
reality, will harden into facts. To an assumption all means which
promote its realization are good. It influences the behavior of all
by inspiring in all the movements, the actions, and the words
which tend towards its fulfillment.

To understand how man molds his future in harmony with his
assumption we must know what we mean by a dimensionally
larger world, for it is to a dimensionally larger world that we go
to alter our future. The observation of an event before it occurs
implies that the event is predetermined from the point of view of
man in the three-dimensional world. Therefore, to change the
conditions here in the three dimensions of space we must first
change them in the four dimensions of space.

Man does not know exactly what is meant by a dimensionally
larger world, and would no doubt deny the existence of a
dimensionally larger self. He is quite familiar with the three
dimensions of length, width and height, and he feels that if there
were a fourth dimension, it should be just as obvious to him as
the dimensions of length, width and height. A dimension is not a
line; it is any way in which a thing can be measured that is
entirely different from all other ways. That is, to measure a solid
fourth-dimensionally, we simply measure it in any direction
except that of its length, width and height.

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Is there another way of measuring an object other than those of
its length, width and height? Time measures my life without
employing the three dimensions of length, width and height.
There is no such thing as an instantaneous object. Its appearance
and disappearance are measurable. It endures for a definite
length of time. We can measure its life span without using the
dimensions of length, width and height. Time is definitely a
fourth way of measuring an object.

The more dimensions an object has, the more substantial and
real it becomes. A straight line, which lies entirely in one
dimension, acquires shape, mass and substance by the addition
of dimensions. What new quality would time, the fourth
dimension, give which would make it just as vastly superior to
solids as solids are to surfaces and surfaces are to lines? Time is
a medium for changes in experience because all changes take
time. The new quality is changeability.

Observe that if we bisect a solid, its cross section will be a
surface; by bisecting a surface, we obtain a line; and by
bisecting a line, we get a point. This means that a point is but a
cross section of a line, which is, in turn, but a cross section of a
surface, which is, in turn, but a cross section of a solid, which is,
in turn, if carried to its logical conclusion, but a cross section of
a four-dimensional object.

We cannot avoid the inference that all three-dimensional objects
are but cross sections of four-dimensional bodies. Which means:
when I meet you, I meet a cross section of the four-dimensional
you — the four-dimension self that is not seen. To see the four-

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dimensional self I must see every cross section or moment of
your life from birth to death and see them all as coexisting. My
focus should take in the entire array of sensory impressions
which you have experienced on earth plus those you might
encounter. I should see them, not in the order in which they were
experienced by you, but as a present whole. Because change is
the characteristic of the fourth dimension, I should see them in a
state of flux as a living, animated whole.

If we have all this clearly fixed in our minds, what does it mean
to us in this three-dimensional world? It means that, if we can
move along time's length, we can see the future and alter it as
we so desire. This world, which we think so solidly real, is a
shadow out of which and beyond which we may at any time
pass. It is an abstraction from a more fundamental and dimen-
sionally larger world — a more fundamental world abstracted
from a still more fundamental and dimensionally larger world
and so on to infinity. The absolute is unattainable by any means
or analysis, no matter how many dimensions we add to the
world.

Man can prove the existence of a dimensionally larger world
simply by focusing his attention on an invisible state and
imagining that he sees and feels it. If he remains concentrated in
this state, his present environment will pass away, and he will
awaken in a dimensionally larger world where the object of his
contemplation will be seen as a concrete objective reality.
Intuitively I feel that, were he to abstract his thoughts from this
dimensionally larger world and retreat still farther within his
mind, he would again bring about an externalization of time. He

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would discover that every time he retreats into his inner mind
and brings about an externalization of time, space becomes
dimensionally larger. And he would, therefore, conclude that
both time and space are serial, and that the drama of life is but
the climbing of a multitudinous dimensional time block.

Scientists will one day explain why there is a Serial Universe.
But in practice how we use this Serial Universe to change the
future is more important. To change the future, we need only
concern ourselves with two worlds in the infinite series, the
world we know by reason of our bodily organs, and the world
we perceive independently of our bodily organs.

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Chapter 2

ASSUMPTIONS BECOME FACTS

MEN believe in the reality of the external world because they do
not know how to focus and condense their powers to penetrate
its thin crust. This book has only one purpose — the removing of
the veil of the senses — the traveling into another world. To
remove the veil of the senses we do not employ great effort; the
objective world vanishes by turning our attention away from it.

We have only to concentrate on the state desired in order to
mentally see it, but to give it reality so that it will become an
objective fact, we must focus attention upon the invisible state
until it has the feeling of reality. When, through concentrated
attention, our desire appears to possess the distinctness and
feeling of reality, we have given it the right to become a visible
concrete fact.

If it is difficult to control the direction of your attention while in
a state akin to sleep, you may find gazing fixedly into an object
very helpful. Do not look at its surface but into and beyond any
plain object such as a wall, a carpet, or any other object which
possesses depth. Arrange it to return as little reflection as
possible. Imagine then that in this depth you are seeing and
hearing what you want to see and hear until your attention is
exclusively occupied by the imagined state.

At the end of your meditation, when you awake from your
"controlled waking dream," you feel as though you had returned

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from a great distance. The visible world which you had shut out
returns to consciousness and by its very presence informs you
that you have been self-deceived into believing that the object of
your contemplation was real. But, if you know that conscious-
ness is the one and only reality, you will remain faithful to your
vision, and by this sustained mental attitude confirm your gift of
reality, and prove that you have the power to give reality to your
desires that they may become visible concrete facts.

Define your ideal and concentrate your attention upon the idea
of identifying yourself with your ideal. Assume the feeling of
being it, the feeling that would be yours were you already the
embodiment of your ideal. Then live and act upon this
conviction. This assumption, though denied by the senses, if
persisted in, will become fact. You will know when you have
succeeded in fixing the desired state in consciousness by simply
looking mentally at the people you know. In dialogues with
yourself you are less inhibited and more sincere than in actual
conversations with others, therefore the opportunity for self-
analysis arises when you are surprised by your mental conver-
sations with others. If you see them as you formerly saw them,
you have not changed your concept of self, for all changes of
concepts of self result in a changed relationship to your world.

In your meditation allow others to see you as they would see you
were this new concept of self a concrete fact. You always seem
to others an embodiment of the ideal you inspire. Therefore, in
meditation, when you contemplate others, you must be seen by
them mentally as you would be seen by them physically were
your concept of self an objective fact; that is, in meditation you

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imagine that they see you expressing that which you desire to
be.

If you assume that you are what you want to be your desire is
fulfilled, and in fulfillment all longing is neutralized. You
cannot continue desiring what you have already realized. Your
desire is not something you labor to fulfill, it is recognizing
something you already possess. It is assuming the feeling of
being that which you desire to be. Believing and being are one.
The conceiver and his conception are one, therefore that which
you conceive yourself to be can never be so far off as even to be
near, for nearness implies separation. "If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth." Being is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen. If you
assume that you are what you want to be, then you will see
others as they are related to your assumption.

If, however, it is the good of others that you desire, then, in
meditation, you must represent them to yourself as already being
that which you desire them to be. It is through desire that you
rise above your present sphere and the road from longing to
fulfillment is shortened as you experience in imagination what
you would experience in the flesh were you already the embodi-
ment of the ideal you desire to be.

I have stated that man has at every moment of time the choice
before him which of several futures he will encounter; but the
question arises: "How is this possible when the experiences of
man, awake in the three-dimensional world, are predetermined?"
as his observation of an event before it occurs implies. This

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ability to change the future will be seen if we liken the experi-
ences of life on earth to this printed page. Man experiences
events on earth singly and successively in the same way that you
are now experiencing the words of this page.

Imagine that every word on this page represents a single sensory
impression. To get the context, to understand my meaning, you
focus your vision on the first word in the upper left-hand corner
and then move your focus across the page from left to right,
letting it fall on the words singly and successively. By the time
your eyes reach the last word on this page you have extracted
my meaning. Suppose, however, on looking at the page, with all
the printed words thereon equally present, you decided to
rearrange them. You could, by rearranging them, tell an entirely
different story; in fact, you could tell many different stories.

A dream is nothing more than uncontrolled four-dimensional
thinking, or the rearrangement of both past and future sensory
impressions. Man seldom dreams of events in the order in which
he experiences them when awake. He usually dreams of two or
more events which are separated in time, fused into a single
sensory impression; or, in his dream, he so completely re-
arranges his single waking sensory impressions that he does not
recognize them when he encounters them in his waking state.

For example: I dreamed that I delivered a package to the
restaurant in my apartment building. The hostess said to me,
"You can't leave that there"; whereupon, the elevator operator
gave me a few letters and as I thanked him for them, he, in turn,

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thanked me. At this point, the night elevator operator appeared
and waved a greeting to me.

The following day, as I left my apartment, I picked up a few
letters which had been placed at my door. On my way down I
gave the day elevator operator a tip and thanked him for taking
care of my mail; whereupon, he thanked me for the tip. On my
return home that day I overheard a doorman say to a delivery
man, "You can't leave that there." As I was about to take the
elevator up to my apartment, I was attracted by a familiar face in
the restaurant, and, as I looked in, the hostess greeted me with a
smile. Late that night I escorted my dinner guests to the elevator
and as I said goodbye to them, the night operator waved good-
night to me.

By simply rearranging a few of the single sensory impressions I
was destined to encounter, and by fusing two or more of them
into single sensory impressions, I constructed a dream which
differed quite a bit from my waking experience.

When we have learned to control the movements of our attention
in the four-dimensional world, we shall be able to consciously
create circumstances in the three-dimensional world. We learn
this control through the waking dream, where our attention can
be maintained without effort, for attention minus effort is
indispensable to changing the future. We can, in a controlled
waking dream, consciously construct an event which we desire
to experience in the three-dimensional world.

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The sensory impressions we use to construct our waking dream
are present realities displaced in time or the four-dimensional
world. All that we do in constructing the waking dream is to
select from the vast array of sensory impressions those, which,
when they are properly arranged, imply that we have realized
our desire. With the dream clearly defined we relax in a chair
and induce a state of consciousness akin to sleep — a state,
which, although bordering on sleep, leaves us in conscious
control of the movements of our attention. When we have
achieved that state, we experience in imagination what we
would experience in reality were this waking dream an objective
fact. In applying this technique to change the future it is
important always to remember that the only thing which
occupies the mind during the waking dream is the waking
dream, the predetermined action which implies the fulfillment of
our desire. How the waking dream becomes physical fact is not
our concern. Our acceptance of the waking dream as physical
reality wills the means tor its fulfillment.

Let me again lay the foundation of changing the future, which is
nothing more than a controlled waking dream.

1. Define your objective — know definitely what you want.

2. Construct an event which you believe you will encounter
following the fulfillment of your desire — something which will
have the action of self predominant — an event which implies the
fulfillment of your desire.

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3. Immobilize the physical body and induce a state of con-
sciousness akin to sleep; then, mentally feel yourself right into
the proposed action — imagining all the while that you are
actually performing the action here and now so that you experi-
ence in imagination what you would experience in the flesh
were you now to realize your goal.

Experience has convinced me that this is the perfect way to
achieve my goal. However, my own many failures would
convict me were I to imply that I have completely mastered the
movements of my attention. I can, however, with the ancient
teacher say: "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, I press toward the mark for the prize."

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Chapter 3

POWER OF IMAGINATION

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. "

— John 8:32

MEN claim that a true judgment must conform to the external
reality to which it relates. This means that if I, while imprisoned,
suggest to myself that I am free and succeed in believing that I
am free, it is true that I believe in my freedom; but it does not
follow that I am free for I may be the victim of illusion. But,
because of my own experiences, I have come to believe in so
many strange things that I see little reason to doubt the truth of
things that are beyond my experience.

The ancient teachers warned us not to judge from appearances
because, said they, the truth need not conform to the external
reality to which it relates. They claimed that we bore false
witness if we imagined evil against another — that no matter how
real our belief appears to be — how truly it conforms to the
external reality to which it relates — if it does not make free the
one of whom we hold the belief, it is untrue and therefore a false
judgment.

We are called upon to deny the evidence of our senses and to
imagine as true of our neighbor that which makes him free.

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." To
know the truth of our neighbor we must assume that he is

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already that which he desires to be. Any concept we hold of
another that is short of his fulfilled desire will not make him free
and therefore cannot be the truth.

Instead of learning my craft in schools where attending courses
and seminars is considered a substitute for self-acquired know-
ledge, my schooling was devoted almost exclusively to the
power of imagination. I sat for hours imagining myself to be
other than that which my reason and my senses dictated until the
imagined states were vivid as reality — so vivid that passersby
became but a part of my imagination and acted as I would have
them. By the power of imagination my fantasy led theirs and
dictated to them their behavior and the discourse they held
together while I was identified with my imagined state. Man's
imagination is the man himself, and the world as imagination
sees it is the real world, but it is our duty to imagine all that is
lovely and of good report. "The Lord seeth not as man seeth, for
man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh
upon the heart." "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he."

In meditation, when the brain grows luminous, I find my
imagination endowed with the magnetic power to attract to me
whatsoever I desire. Desire is the power imagination uses to
fashion life about me as I fashion it within myself. I first desire
to see a certain person or scene, and then I look as though I were
seeing that which I want to see, and the imagined state becomes
objectively real. I desire to hear, and then I listen as though I
were hearing, and the imagined voice speaks that which I dictate
as though it had initiated the message. I could give you many
examples to prove my arguments, to prove that these imagined

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states do become physical realities; but I know that my examples
will awaken in all who have not met the like or who are not
inclined towards my arguments, a most natural incredulity.

Nevertheless, experience has convinced me of the truth of the
statement, "He calleth those things which be-not as though they
were." — Romans 4:17. For I have, in intense meditation, called
things that were not seen as though they were, and the unseen
not only became seen, but eventually became physical realities.

By this method — first desiring and then imagining that we are
experiencing that which we desire to experience — we can mold
the future in harmony with our desire. But let us follow the
advice of the prophet and think only the lovely and the good, for
the imagination waits on us as indifferently and as swiftly when
our nature is evil as when it is good. From us spring forth good
and evil. "I have set before thee this day life and good, and death
and evil." — Deuteronomy 30:15.

Desire and imagination are the enchanter's wand of fable and
they draw to themselves their own affinities. They break forth
best when the mind is in a state akin to sleep. I have written with
some care and detail the method I use to enter the dimensionally
larger world, but I shall give one more formula for opening the
door of the larger world.

"In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep calleth
upon men, in slumbering s upon the bed; Then he openeth the
ears of men, and sealeth their instruction." — Job 33:15,16

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In dream we are usually the servant of our vision rather than its
master, but the internal fantasy of dream can be turned into an
external reality. In dream, as in meditation, we slip from this
world into a dimensionally larger world, and I know that the
forms in dream are not flat two-dimensional images which
modern psychologists believe them to be. They are substantial
realities of the dimensionally larger world, and I can lay hold of
them. I have discovered that, if I surprise myself dreaming, I can
lay hold of any inanimate or stationary form of the dream (a
chair, a table, a stairway, a tree) and command myself to awake.
At the command to awake, while firmly holding on to the object
of the dream, I am pulled through myself with the distinct
feeling of awakening from dream. I awaken in another sphere
holding the object of my dream, to find that I am no longer the
servant of my vision but its master, for I am fully conscious and
in control of the movements of my attention. It is in this fully
conscious state, when we are in control of the direction of
thought, that we call things that are not seen as though they
were. In this state we call things by wishing and assuming the
feeling of our wish fulfilled. Unlike the world of three dimen-
sions where there is an interval between our assumption and its
fulfillment, in the dimensionally larger world there is an
immediate realization of our assumption. The external reality
instantly mirrors our assumption. Here there is no need to wait
four months till harvest. We look again as though we saw, and lo
and behold, the fields are already white to harvest.

In this dimensionally larger world "Ye shall not need to fight:
set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord
with you." Chronicles 20:17. And because that greater world is

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slowly passing through our three-dimensional world, we can by
the power of imagination mold our world in harmony with our
desire. Look as though you saw, listen as though you heard;
stretch forth your imaginary hand as though you touched . . . and
your assumptions will harden into facts.

To those who believe that a true judgment must conform to the
external reality to which it relates, this will be foolishness and a
stumbling-block. But I preach and practice the fixing in con-
sciousness of that which man desires to realize.

Experience convinces me that fixed attitudes of mind which do
not conform to the external reality to which they relate and are
therefore called imaginary — "things which are not" — will,
nevertheless, "bring to nought things that are."

I do not wish to write a book of wonders, but rather to turn
man's mind back to the one and only reality that the ancient
teachers worshiped as God. All that was said of God was in
reality said of man's consciousness so we may say, "That,
according as it is written, He that glorify, let him glory in his
own consciousness."

No man needs help to direct him in the application of this law of
consciousness. "I am" is the self-definition of the absolute. The
root out of which everything prows. "I am the vine."

What is your answer to the eternal question, "Who am I?" Your
answer determines the part you play in the world's drama. Your
answer — that is, your concept of self — need not conform to the

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external reality to which it relates. This great truth is revealed in
the statement, "Let the weak say, I am strong." — Joel 3:10

Look back over the good resolutions with which many past new
years are encumbered. They lived a little while and then they
died. Why? Because they were severed from their root. Assume
that you are that which you want to be. Experience in imagin-
ation what you would experience in the flesh were you already
that which you want to be. Remain faithful to your assumption,
so that you define yourself as that which you have assumed.
Things have no life if they are severed from their roots, and our
consciousness, our "I amness," is the root of all that springs in
our world.

"If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." — John
8:24. That is, if I do not believe that I am already that which I
desire to be, then I remain as I am and die in my present concept
of self. There is no power, outside of the consciousness of man,
to resurrect and make alive that which man desires to exper-
ience. That man who is accustomed to call up at will whatever
images he pleases, will be, by virtue of the power of his
imagination, master of his fate. "I am the resurrection, and the
life: he that belie veth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he
live." — John 11:25. '"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free."

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Chapter 4

NO ONE TO CHANGE BUT SELF

"And for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. " — John 17:19

THE ideal we serve and strive to attain could never be evolved
from us were it not potentially involved in our nature.

It is now my purpose to retell and to emphasize an experience of
mine printed by me two years ago. I believe these quotations
from "THE SEARCH" will help us to understand the operation
of the law of consciousness, and show us that we have no one to
change but self.

Once in an idle interval at sea I meditated on "the perfect state,"
and wondered what I would be, were I of too pure eyes to
behold iniquity, if to me all things were pure and were I without
condemnation. As I became lost in this fiery brooding, I found
myself lifted above the dark environment of the senses. So
intense was the feeling I felt myself a being of fire dwelling in a
body of air. Voices as from a heavenly chorus, with the
exaltation of those who had been conquerors in a conflict with
death, were, singing, "He is risen — He is risen," and intuitively I
knew they meant me.

Then I seemed to be walking in the night. I soon came upon a
scene that might have been the ancient Pool of Bethesda for in
this place lay a great multitude of impotent folk — blind, halt,

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withered, waiting not for the moving of the water as of tradition,
but waiting for me. As I came near, without thought or effort on
my part they were, one after the other, molded as by the
Magician of the Beautiful. Eyes, hands, feet — all missing
members — were drawn from some invisible reservoir and
molded in harmony with that perfection which I felt springing
within me. When all were made perfect, the chorus exulted, "It
is finished. "Then the scene dissolved and I awoke.

I know this vision was the result of my intense meditation upon
the idea of perfection, for my meditations invariably bring about
union with the state contemplated. I had been so completely
absorbed within the idea that for a while I had become what I
contemplated, and the high purpose with which I had for that
moment identified myself drew the companionship of high
things and fashioned the vision in harmony with my inner
nature. The ideal with which we are united works by association
of ideas to awaken a thousand moods to create a drama in
keeping with the central idea.

My mystical experiences have convinced me that there is no
way to bring about the outer perfection we seek other than by
the transformation of ourselves. As soon as we succeed in
transforming ourselves, the world will melt magically before our
eyes and reshape itself in harmony with that which our trans-
formation affirms.

In the divine economy nothing is lost. We cannot lose anything
save by descent from the sphere where the thing has its natural
life. There is no transforming power in death and, whether we

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are here or there, we fashion the world that surrounds us by the
intensity of our imagination and feeling, and we illuminate or
darken our lives by the concepts we hold of ourselves. Nothing
is more important to us than our conception of ourselves, and
especially is this true of our concept of the dimensionally greater
One within us.

Those who help or hinder us, whether they know it or not, are
the servants of that law which shapes outward circumstances in
harmony with our inner nature. It is our conception of ourselves
which frees or constrains us, though it may use material agen-
cies to achieve its purpose.

Because life molds the outer world to reflect the inner arrange-
ment of our minds, there is no way of bringing about the outer
perfection we seek other than by the transformation of ourselves.
No help cometh from without; the hills to which we lift our eyes
are those of an inner range. It is thus to our own consciousness
that we must turn as to the only reality, the only foundation on
which all phenomena can be explained. We can rely absolutely
on the justice of this law to give us only that which is of the
nature of ourselves.

To attempt to change the world before we change our concept of
ourselves is to struggle against the nature of things. There can be
no outer change until there is first an inner change. As within, so
without. I am not advocating philosophical indifference when I
suggest that we should imagine ourselves as already that which
we want to be, living in a mental atmosphere of greatness, rather
than using physical means and arguments to bring about the

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desired change. Everything we do, unaccompanied by a change
of consciousness, is but futile readjustment of surfaces. However
we toil or struggle, we can receive no more than our assump-
tions affirm. To protest against anything which happens to us is
to protest against the law of our being and our rulership over our
own destiny.

The circumstances of my life are too closely related to my
conception of myself not to have been formed by my own spirit
from some dimensionally larger storehouse of my being. If there
is pain to me in these happenings, I should look within myself
for the cause, for I am moved here and there and made to live in
a world in harmony with my concept of myself.

Intense meditation brings about a union with the state contem-
plated, and during this union we see visions, have experiences
and behave in keeping with our change of consciousness. This
shows us that a transformation of consciousness will result in a
change of environment and behavior.

All wars prove that violent emotions are extremely potent in
precipitating mental rearrangements. Every great conflict has
been followed by an era of materialism and greed in which the
ideals for which the conflict ostensibly was waged are
submerged. This is inevitable because war evokes hate which
impels a descent in consciousness from the plane of the ideal to
the level where the conflict is waged. If we would become as
emotionally aroused over our ideals as we become over our
dislikes, we would ascend to the plane of our ideal as easily as
we now descend to the level of our hates.

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Love and hate have a magical transforming power, and we grow
through their exercise into the likeness of what we contemplate.
By intensity of hatred we create in ourselves the character we
imagine in our enemies. Qualities die for want of attention, so
the unlovely states might best be rubbed out by imagining
"beauty for ashes and joy for mourning" rather than by direct
attacks on the state from which we would be free. "Whatsoever
things are lovely and of good report, think on these things," for
we become that with which we are en rapport.

There is nothing to change but our concept of self. As soon as
we succeed in transforming self, our world will dissolve and
reshape itself in harmony with that which our change affirms.

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